European campaign – Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances

IOSH is supporting a Europe-wide campaign to highlight the importance of managing dangerous substances at work to help prevent ill health.

Cancer, respiratory illnesses and skin diseases are some of the health issues caused by exposure to hazardous substances at work. These include chemicals such as paints, glues and disinfectants; carcinogens including asbestos, diesel engine exhaust emissions and silica dust; and natural materials like grain dust and crude oil.

Many workers are exposed to these substances at work. In Europe, almost 80,000 people die a year from cancer caused by exposure to carcinogens at work.

The ‘Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances’ campaign, organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), is working to tackle this issue and aims to:

raise awareness of the risks from dangerous substances in the workplace

promote a culture of prevention to eliminate or effectively manage risks

improve understanding of the risks associated with carcinogens

target vulnerable workers, for example, young people and migrant workers

We’d like to hear about the activities you organise and see your excellent entries for the ‘Healthy Workplaces Good Practice Awards’ to develop case studies, so please keep us posted.

“Through its WORK 2022 strategy, IOSH delivers advancements that promote and realise our vision for a safe and healthy world of work.

“Reducing exposures to work-related health hazards is a vital part of this. It is at the heart of what our 47,000 members advising businesses in EU member states and other countries strive to do every day.

“IOSH is proud to support this EU-OSHA campaign to improve the management of dangerous substances. We will seek to align aspects of our own No Time to Lose campaign activity with that of EU-OSHA so our voice, unified with others, will help to raise awareness, share good practice and improve standards of management.”